


The Trouble With Fiction

by tartan_suitcase (miss_whimsy)



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fanfiction, Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-21
Updated: 2014-03-21
Packaged: 2018-01-16 12:53:39
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,963
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1348153
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/miss_whimsy/pseuds/tartan_suitcase
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"What are you reading?" Steve asked, dropping down onto the opposite side of the sofa from Tony.<br/> <br/>"Nothing," Tony said sharply, and pushed the tablet behind him under a cushion.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Trouble With Fiction

"What are you reading?" Steve asked, dropping down onto the opposite side of the sofa from Tony.  
   
"Nothing," Tony said sharply, and pushed the tablet behind him under a cushion. "Do you want to watch a movie?"  
   
~  
   
To be fair to Tony, it was Clint who started it.  
   
~  
   
Tony prided himself on being able to do five things effectively, at any given time. Sure, he may be talking to Bruce about quantum tunnelling, but that didn't mean he wasn't paying attention to that conversation Natasha and Steve were having, and it didn't mean he couldn't read up on biomedical engineering at the same time, and sketch out some new upgrades to to the Iron Man suit. He was just gifted that way.  
   
Coulson's briefings were boring, but he could recite back every word to Phil afterwards - well 50% of the words, at the very least he got the gist of the meeting right - so Tony had taken to working on his tablet while he was briefed and Coulson let him get away with it in the interests of keeping him quiet. 

Today's meeting was particularly boring, so as soon as the email notification popped up, Tony opened it. Opposite Tony, Clint was spinning his phone in circles on the desk, eyes fixed on Coulson as though he was saying something worthwhile and not just rambling about… did he just say waffle iron? What was this meeting about again? Whatever. Tony didn't know how he'd done it, but that was one of the best things about Clint. He always surprised you.

The email held a link, and Tony hesitated over it, though not for too long, because he recognised the website and God only knew what kind of weird kinky crap was about to explode onto his screen. Never let it be said that Tony Stark was a coward, however.

He knew it would be about him. People had been writing Tony Stark fan fiction long before he'd even become Iron Man. What he'd seen of it, back in the bad old days, was awful. When he began his relationship with Pepper, he stopped looking altogether and he hadn't thought about it since. People were always going to write about him. If they wanted to write about him boning Pepper or Rhodey, or even that truly hideous one he'd stumbled upon that one time, about Justin Hammer, well that was their business. It was fiction. Nothing that was printed about him in the press was any more accurate most of the time.

Tony caught Clint's eye and raised an eyebrow at him. Amateur. Had he really expected Tony to be traumatised by… he looked back down at the page.

   
 **Rating:** Teen And Up Audiences  
 **Archive Warning:** No Archive Warnings Apply  
 **Category:** M/M, M/F  
 **Fandoms:** The Avengers (RPF)  
 **Relationship:** Steve Rogers/Tony Stark, past Tony Stark/ Pepper Potts, past Steve Rogers/OFC  
 

Tony felt his mouth drop open slightly. Clint started to laugh.  
   
"Is something funny, Agent Barton?" Coulson said and Tony flattened the tablet screen against his chest.  
   
"No, sir," Clint answered, though he was still grinning like a lunatic.  
   
Coulson glared at Tony, as though Tony was responsible for the disturbance, and then carried on the meeting.

Tony flicked to his messenger without looking at the page again.

_Avengers RPF? That's a thing now?_

Clint's phone buzzed and he picked it up, smiling. Coulson pretended nothing was happening.

_Yeah there's thousands of them._

_And you read it?_ Tony shot back.

Clint shrugged. _Sure. Why not?_

Tony looked pointedly at Coulson. Clint laughed again.

_It's amusing that you think he isn't aware of it already._

"Gentlemen," Coulson interjected. "Am I keeping the two of you from something? Maybe you'd like to share with the class?"

"No, sir," Clint replied again and Tony shook his head. 

He ignored both the tablet and Clint for the rest of the meeting.

~  
   
Tony prided himself on being un-shockable. There was nothing that anyone could write or say about him that would surprise him. He'd been around, he'd done it all - drinking, drugs, girls, guys. Back before Iron Man and Pepper and the Avengers, he'd never said no to anything on principle. As long as everyone involved was of age and consenting, he was all for it.  
   
He went back to the site Clint had linked him to, and selected The Avengers (RPF) instead of reading the story itself. Clint was right; there were thousands of fics, featuring all of them. There were stories about SHIELD agents, about Clint and Natasha, about The Hulk, about Thor and Jane, Thor and Loki, about Steve during the war, about Tony and Pepper, Tony and Bruce, Tony and Steve… most of them were about Tony and Steve.

"You're a winning combination," Natasha said, making him jump off the couch.

"Do you have to do that?" he hissed at her. "That creepy creeping thing you do?"

"I do it because I get to see you make that face," she said, sliding over the back of the sofa and patting the seat next to her where he'd been sitting. "What have you tried so far?"

"You read it too?" Tony asked, falling back down against her. "I haven't read any of it, I'm just… investigating."

"Uh huh," Natasha murmured and held out her hand for the tablet. "Avoid the Tony/Pepper stuff. It'll only depress you."

"I think reading about a version of myself having a decent relationship with my ex-girlfriend is a little too masochistic even for me, don't you?" He handed over the StarkPad and then curled up against her side as she started to apply filters to the search. "What do you read about?"

She smirked, but didn't answer. Tony decided he didn't want to know.

~

Bruce, as it turned out, liked reading platonic friendship fic about the Hulk and the rest of the team. His favourite was one where he hulked out every time Tony got so much as a paper cut. Tony teased him about it for days, because that's what Tony did with the people he loved, but he had to admit it was awfully cute. 

Thor loved AU fics. Coffee shop. High School. No powers. As long as Thor was with Jane and Loki wasn't evil, he was happy. Tony didn't even pretend to be surprised. That was real life.

Clint read everything. Everything. And he left comments on every single one, anonymously of course, so as not to suffer the wrath of Coulson. Tony had to admire his dedication. 

"When do you get the chance?" Tony asked him. "Doesn't all the hot monkey sex with Agent Suit Suit, eat up all your free time?"

"I'm really good at managing my time," Clint told him with a grin. 

Tony didn't dare ask Steve if he knew about the website. If he didn't, Tony wasn't going to be the one to tell him. If he did… well. What was he reading about?

~

Tony read the story that Clint linked him to and a few others that Natasha emailed to him. It was odd, reading about a version of himself that was, for the most part, not like him at all. Sure Tony was loud and showy in public, but very few people wrote about him working in his shop, or working at all in fact. To the general public he was a rich playboy who gave his business to his girlfriend and then made himself a suit of armor to go fight bad guys in. Sometimes reading about the "character" of Tony Stark reminded him far too much of that first argument he'd had with Steve on the Hellicarrier. He was so much more than Iron Man. He was more than his public persona. He knew that. He didn't need the approval of perfect strangers. He didn't need to read people dissecting his relationship with his father, which was far more complex than anyone could ever understand. He didn't need to read about all the reasons Pepper was better off with Rhodey, or Happy, or in one rather strange instance, a sentient version of the Iron Man suit.

People seemed to have specific ideas about members of The Avengers and that was fine. He knew they all had characters to play. He was the mouth and the money. Bruce was the brains. Thor was the brawn. Natasha and Clint were stone cold super-spy assassins. Steve… no one got Steve. In fact, Tony found it easier to read stories where he was portrayed as a womanizing douche, than to read something where Steve came off as some aw shucks country bumpkin the rest of them had been landed with. All muscle and no brains. That wasn't Steve. 

Sure seventy years encased in ice did create something of a cultural black hole, and sometimes Tony found himself making reference to something that Steve didn't have the faintest idea about. But that didn't mean he was an idiot. Steve soaked up information like a sponge and, after a couple of fraught months at the beginning where they were both too stubborn to apologise, Tony found that he liked talking to Steve. He liked listening to him. He liked answering Steve's questions and knowing when Steve got it.

He liked Steve. 

A lot.

~

The first time Tony read about fictional Tony and fictional Steve having fictional sex, it was three o clock in the morning, he was locked in his workshop alone, and JARVIS had orders not to admit anyone unless it was an emergency.

When he finished he stripped the engine out of his Ferrari and rebuilt it.

The next three days passed much the same way.

~

"What are you reading?" Steve had asked, and Tony should have known he'd never get away with lying. The man was remarkably determined when he set his mind to something.

Halfway through Ferris Bueller, Tony was leaning against Steve's side, pretending not to be aware of Steve's arm as it stretched long the sofa behind him, but it was difficult not to be aware of every inch of Steve.

"Huh," Steve said, just when Tony thought he might be able to get away with resting his head on Steve's shoulder, "do you read erotic fan fiction about the whole team, or just you and me?"

Tony jerked upright to find Steve holding the tablet at arms length, casually flicking through the story Tony had been reading. "What?"

"Because, if you ever want to try the real thing, with the real me," Steve said quietly, blushing a beautiful shade of red, "you only have to ask."

"Steve…" Tony said, bewildered. "You read this stuff too? You read about us? Do you read about us?"

"Clint sent me a link a few weeks ago," Steve said. "A lot of it is just plain wrong, but some of them. I've enjoyed some of them."

Tony straddled Steve's lap in one fluid motion. He felt Steve's hands settle on his hips, and he grinned, then dipped his head and pressed his lips to Steve's

The kiss was soft and sweet. Steve's hands tightened encouragingly and he gave an appreciative murmur when Tony pulled back the teeniest amount.

"Don't stop," he whispered. "You have no idea…"

"Oh I have some idea," Tony told him fondly, enjoying the way their lips brushed together as they spoke. He teased Steve's lower lip with his tongue and moaned.

"I'm not..." Steve murmured, pulling Tony more firmly against him. "I mean. Don't believe everything you read."

"You're killing me, Rogers," Tony laughed, rocking his hips against Steve's. "Just promise me one thing."

"What's that?" Steve asked, as his hands slipped under Tony's shirt.

Tony closed his eyes and melted against him.

"Promise me we don't have to thank Clint for this."

**Author's Note:**

> Bruce's favourite fic is this one [ He Ain't Heavy, He's My Scibro](http://archiveofourown.org/works/417060)


End file.
